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Susan Cartsonis, a film producer and president of Storefront Pictures, recently spoke at the Girl Scouts' national convention and said there aren't enough women in the film industry. The chair of the Foundation Board of Women in Film, which gives grants to female filmmakers and scholarships to directors and cinematographers, says filmmakers are in the position to empower women and storytelling can advance gender equity and equality.

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Hollywood's reluctance to produce more films created for and by women is often most clearly seen in children's films, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold writes. Films like "The Secret Garden," "Matilda" and "The Parent Trap" were celebrated by young girls in the 1990s, but today's film industry seems less interested in producing classic stories of female protagonists and has been sidelined by animated films that often champion stories for young boys and stereotype female characters in the princess role. "The marketing philosophy in Hollywood is that younger [female] audiences are 'aspirational' and will watch older girls, but that older girls won't 'watch down,'" producer Susan Cartsonis said.

The U.K. fashion industry is getting on board when it comes to changing perceptions of women in the modeling and fashion worlds, and the same efforts need to be made in other media segments, writes Caryn Franklin, a fashion commentator and co-founder of All Walks Beyond the Catwalk. It's a culture-changing movement that will hopefully bring about better female images and slice away the stereotypes.

LEGO's decision to market a "girly" line of LEGO products, complete in pastel colors, stirred up a national debate over gender stereotyping and the effects it would have on young girls. The decision has ignited a protest petition as well.

Five educational institutions are being awarded $10,000 in funding from the National Center for Women & Information Technology's Academic Alliance Seed Fund for developing programs to entice more women into the tech industry. The fund is jointly supported by Microsoft Corporation Research for developing initiatives around recruiting and retaining women in the computing sector.

Actor George Clooney is unequivocal when it comes to the power of women in film and says movies such as "Bridesmaids" and "The Help" prove that women can carry a film just as well as a male actor. "There's this strange thing that's happened over the last 25 or 30 years where there's this decision being made that women aren't able to carry the box office," Clooney said, acknowledging that female-lead flicks aren't easily sold.